Weight with Bony

This is Bony. The goal is to animate him lifting and pushing objects in Autodesk Maya using constraints.

Although I managed to create the animations, I feel that I will need to revisit and practice working with constraints to gain a better understanding of how they work.

How to do the juggles, man?

First things first; I can't juggle, so this task sounded extremely difficult. I found that the use of layers was especially helpful in this task to ensure that each ball landed in the hands at the desired timing. In the first attempt the ball wobbles midway through its cycle, which ruined its flowing arc of movement. However, when looping the animation the cycle works successfully.

In my second attempt I fixed the wobbling motion, although this also required all of the balls on each layer to be adjusted. 

Rock Lift

The objective was to animate a character lifting and dropping and dropping a heavy object. I decided to keep the character design fairly simple in this animation, so I could focus on his movement as opposed to maintaining the volume of small, artistic details. I feel that the animation works, although he could perhaps spend a few more frames struggling to hold up the rock before dropping it.

Bouncing with Squirrels

In this animation, the jelly bean-like shape is supposed to jump with arcs similar to the bouncing ball task, although this time a tail should follow through. I found this to be the most difficult task so far. I especially struggled with making the tail move naturally as opposed to looking stiff and robotic.

Elephant and the Bicycle

 

I can honestly say that I had low expectations for this film. The story is introduced with members of the public littering the street, which left me with the assumption that this would be another typical 'save the environment' campaign video. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of a large, street-sweeping elephant.  

Although the character does not speak throughout, I found myself quickly gaining a small attachment to the elephant as I joined him on his journey throughout the day - especially because of his many small quirks.  One moment in particular that stuck with me is when he eats his bunches of bananas - popping them open one by one with his trunk. Another was when he produced rain after drinking water, showering down on people walking by with umbrellas. 

  

The animation style consists of multiple hand-painted shapes which were then combined to create objects. The animation itself was very fluent - particularly in the trunk which flowed with natural arcs. The environments were not always realistic (as can be seen by the slanted houses in the image above) but it compliment's the film's child-targeted storyline well. I also found the sound to be an effective element of the film - creating a bigger impact for the character's movements. For example, when he sweeps the street is accompanied by a sharp brushing sound. 

As the story continues, we watch the elephant grow excited at the thought of buying the bicycle - working hard each day to save his small wage towards the £9999 price tag. There was one shot in particular which truly emphasised how hard he was working, where the animator overlapped multiple images of the elephant sweeping in different streets simultaneously. 

It is almost heartbreaking to watch when he finally comes to buy the bike, realising just how tiny it is. The elephant then retracts himself from society - hiding away in his house for a long period of time. Equally upsetting is the realisation that the people who live around him do not care that he is upset or gone - only noticing his disappearance as the trash builds up to the point of inconvenience.  

Upon realising that avoiding his duties effects others, he quickly grabs a sack and begins to clean the streets once again - also discarding the beloved bike. However, the tone of the film quickly changes when he meets a young girl doodling a bicycle into the side of the pavement using chalk. He performs the heartwarming act of giving the bicycle to the girl who desires one. The film is topped off when the small girl runs to hug the gigantic creature and befriends him. 

The simplistic animation and lack of dialogue compliment each other well for an entertaining and easy-to-follow narrative for an audience of any language. The heartwarming story remained engaging throughout, triggering both sadness and happiness whilst appealing to its young target audience successfully. The Elephant and the Bicycle quickly exceeded all expectations and was a worth winner of the Bradford Animation Festival Award 2014. 

Real to the Surreal: Study

Surrealism is an open art form which allows artists to portray aspects of reality and their imagination in absurd styles. Before starting the 'Real to the Surreal' art project, I decided to research professional artists. 

Aziz and Cucher are visual artists who have collaborated since 1993 to create a range of surrealist projects. Dystopia is their most renowned exhibit, which features photographs of various models with their facial features removed. 

To me, this project is visually powerful - making such a small change can leave a large and negative impression on the audience; when showing their work to my family, they described the images as "gross" and "creepy". I decided to create a piece of work in their style in an attempt to spark a similar reaction. 

My interpretation of Aziz and Cucher's style.

I decided to use a younger model as this would allow me to combine surrealism and a child's innocence to create a (potentially) bigger impact. To further emphasise this, I asked him to lean against a fluffy surface in his school uniform - similar to a standard school photograph. I then took the image into Adobe Photoshop, where I removed his facial features and drained the saturation. The lighting on various areas of the face is patchy and needs tweaking, but I will leave it for now so that I can make a start on the relevant art project.

Tweening: Hand Turning

We were given the first and last frames of this animation and instructed to draw the relevant tweens using a light box. 

After combining the frames using Dragonframe, I found that the animation does not run as smoothly as it could. I much prefer animating in Adobe Flash as the frames can be played instantly, meaning that changes to the animation can be made sooner.

Anticipation for Jumping

The second principle of animation is anticipation, which is used to show the preparation for an action. All important actions should have anticipation as it is arguably the most important part of an action because it directs the viewer's attention to the movement and suggests what action is going to occur.

Keeping the squash and stretch principle in mind, I have created a simplistic character in Adobe Flash which has been animated to jump.

I found that the 'onion skin' tool was particularly helpful as it allowed me to animate the character straight ahead - creating a good level of fluidity. The use of colour also allowed me to control the body's volume throughout the animation. I also played different music and sound effects alongside my animation to experiment with the impact that sound can have. On the other hand, I found it difficult to maintain a consistent line thickness due to Flash's smoothing.

To overcome this I removed all outlines, leaving the character's motion unchanged. 

Squash and Stretch

The twelve principles of animation are essential techniques for animating in both 2D and 3D. The first principle, squash and stretch, involves the exaggeration of a character's body to create the illusion of weight and volume as it moves. Squash generally shows force, impact or anticipation, whilst stretch indicates acceleration or velocity.

To demonstrate, I was set the task of animating a bouncing ball. This required each frame to be individually drawn using a light box and animation pegs to assure that the animation flowed.

Throughout this process it was important to consider not only the volume of my ball, but that each drawing followed an arced motion path. It was somewhat difficult to judge the distance between each drawing as the velocity increased and decreased, however I upon watching the final video I feel that this is not too much of an issue.

I also attempted this exercise in Autodesk Maya using a polygon sphere with a rig that allowed the ball to move, squash and stretch.

I found this method to be much easier and quicker as the rig controlled the volume of the ball when squashing and stretching. The software also created the in-between frames, meaning that I avoided the earlier issue of judging distance. 

I also used Maya to complete a similar exercise where the ball needed to accelerate before coming to a sudden halt. This time the character has a tail, which follows through as the ball stops. This task was the easiest of the three, which is most probably due to the linear motion path. 

To further experiment with the principle of squash and stretch, I will later animate the same character to maneuver between various obstacles.

The bloggin' begins...

My journey began in childhood, where I first discovered my love for video games. Not only do I enjoy playing games, but I consider them to be an art form - a gateway almost, allowing a person to visually explore another's imagination. I was fascinated by the designs that went into the creation of both characters and environments. 

Games I particularly enjoyed include 'Spyro the Dragon', 'Hotel Dusk' and 'Heavy Rain'. Heavy Rain was created by Quantic Dream - a French video game developing company who create realistic graphics using actors and techniques involving motion capture. The final results of the creating process are impeccable, as the character models are borderline identical to their real-life actor. 

In 2012 I began my studies of Animation for Film and Games at St. Austell College. I excelled in many areas of the course, working vigorously in software such as Autodesk Maya, Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop. The course taught me many important skills, such as how to create storyboards to a good standard, how to analyse existing video and photographic advertisements and how to visually present ideas. 

During my college course, I had much experience in working as a team - which was especially effective when designing TV idents. The assignment required me to work in a group of 2-3 people to create a 30-second ident for the fictional game-reviewing channel 'Game Hedz'. Within the project, my colleague was responsible for the environment design, whilst I created the character - which was modelled, rigged, textured and animated in Autodesk Maya.

A render from the final TV ident production.

I am currently studying Animation and Visual Effects at Falmouth University, where I am hoping to develop my skills further in order to achieve the career I hope for.